REPORT CARD 2024

Coal is still the king in terms of electricity generation. But new renewables, mainly solar power, have shown an impressive growth

- SUNITA NARAIN, NIVIT KUMAR YADAV, BINIT DAS AND ARVIND POSWAL

By October 2024, India ranked fourth in the world for renewable energy capacity addition, with a total capacity exceeding

190 GW. It has the fifth largest solar power capacity and fourth largest wind power capacity globally.

In the past decade—2014 to 2024—the share of non-fossil energy has increased from 32 per cent to 45 per cent of India’s total installed capacity. These sources, driven primarily by solar energy, have increased from 87 GW to 198 GW. This is impressive, even though the installed capacity of fossil fuel-based electricity has also increased during this period—from 187 GW to 243 GW. Coal is still the “king”, with 218 GW installed capacity (of the total 441 GW), but it is losing its place. Its share is now below 50 per cent of the installed energy mix of the country, down from 60 per cent at the beginning of this decade. Conversely, the share of new renewables (primarily solar and wind energy) has gone up from 14 per cent of the installed capacity to 32 per cent.